Friday, June 7, 2013

Blast from the Past: Sycophancy and the Nigerian online Columnist

I am on vacation this month, so enjoy one of the blast from the past. Even though it still rings true today, if not truer still.

Sycophancy: the new directive principle for Nigeria web columnist?


I thought we have heard the last of them, but hell no! They are still very much lurking around. Their mouths is their god, their goal is our ruin. Their plan is their corrupt enrichment and nothing will stand in their way, truths will be sacrificed, facts will be turned into farce as long as their pockets is lined. The new Nigeria web columnists are one hell of a motley crowd. They come in all shapes, forms and hue; they churned out volumes of words like wordsmith every week, all at the biddings of their masters. When they are not calling for the “balkanization” of Nigeria they are urging us to join them in their morbid opera where they “praise sing” their ways to hard earned currency doled to them by Nigeria current rulers, i.e. governor/president/minister/legislators celebrating their 100 days in office.

Not too long ago, I wrote about the so-called “me-too” web-columnist, now they have refined their acts. They no longer stop short of praising their “ogas”-masters with subtlety, they brazenly inflicts us with their “praise singing” gibberish daily. To imagine that a Nigerian will sit behind his computer and praise the perfidious regime presently stalking our land beats me hollow. To still imagine that these writers will turn truths on its head is incalculable. What drew my ire, is not just that this conscience-less Nigeria are doing this for lucre, but they are so ignorant of the implication of what they are doing.

One writer recently wrote a flattering prose on the 100 days of President Olusegun Obasanjo and Governor Fayose. (See OBJ'S DISCIPLES - HOW CHIEF BODE GEORGE, GOV. FAYOSE AND OTHER PDP APPARATUS CELEBRATED THE FIRST 100 DAYS by Charles Olaiya, Nigeriaworld 9/11/03) I bet readers will like to know the premise for his vaunted piece, well it is simple: to him the fact that Governor Fayose commissioned GSM line for Ekiti state at his 100 days in office is enough. Can you imagine how low our expectations of governing and rulership have sunked! Kai! Well my friend didn’t just stop at that, of course he has to earn his pay, after all his own democracy dividends will be paid into an offshore account! That writer concluded as follows:

“The Nigerian political process has not matured to the level where accomplishments can be counted after 100 days in office. This is a mythical benchmark intended to hold elected officials and political appointees to their promises, which may not be fulfilled. Many democracies around the world, including the U.S., mark such milestones, but not to the point of celebration.”

In other words setting a benchmark for elected officials is now mythical, and our political process has not matured to the level where accomplishments can be counted after 100 days? Haba! Mr. Paid-Writer, are you reading yourself at all. In the previous paragraphs, this web columnist had earlier praised the same governors and his hero- Olabode George for their political sagacity. He committed the worst faux pas when he wrote:

“Chief Bode George was not a known name. But his spectacular rise and effective leadership are a force in a country where good leadership is hard to find at any price. Chief Bode George has succeeded in transforming the southwest into a new frontier of hope where the old politicians, both dead and alive, have failed.


He successfully managed the last national election in Nigeria with spectacular success. His followers, men such as Chief Ropo Adesanya, Chief Olofintuyi and others from the southwest, are just as effective as he is.”

I wonder how much this PDP commissioned public relations job will cost the taxpayers of Ekiti and Ondo State. I never imagine that some one will one day claimed to have “successfully managed the last national election in Nigeria with spectacular success”. An election where results released at polling booth is diametrically different from that announced at the collation center. An election the Commonwealth monitoring group refused to certify. An election where the ruling party with active connivance of the Nigeria police force openly employed thuggery and brigandage. An Olabode George that lost his very ward and local government in Lagos thanks to the vigilance and education of Lagos electorate!

It is a well accepted principle of logic that you can approbate and at the same reprobate, how this particular writer ever get away with this should be left to the publishers of Nigeriworld and indeed the Nigeria people to decide. At one breath he praised the corrupt regime of Fayose, (by the way may be we should asked him why he refused to address the certificate issue?) and also gave thumbs up to the nepotistic regime of Agagu, who in one breath appointed virtually all his children, and in-laws into salary-earning paid positions at the Government House in Akure. In another breath, he admonished them:

“Our system is a bit different. We are a more corrupt, less transparent and less focused nation than the countries we are trying to mimic. The politicians should save themselves the public embarrassment of adhering to this "100 days" myth. The celebrations and fanfare - without any legislative, industrial or economic achievement - are deceitful and a waste of government resources.”

Perhaps his idea of industrial and economic achievement is GSM lines! What a benchmark! I once wrote that some of these paid writers masquerading as web columnist had a sinister objective to annihilate Nigeria, and they will stop at nothing until they achieve their nefarious act.

When I wrote my last piece on similar subject, there was a deluge of emails from this “circus crowd” of paid writers, and I will take the indulgence of the reader to quote one of them:

“I am one of the ….columnists you seem to be railing against …. I found your perspective interesting even though too hard to understand because of the impediments you loaded in your write-up. I found your definitions utterly laughable and your complaint … pitiable. Probably there is some bit of envy implicated in your write-up”

Imagine, been accused of “Envy”. To be envious of disillusioned and myopic writers whose god is his belly is the height of infamy. Envious ke? I have never and will never write to praise a government or an individual for the love of lucre! Mr. Writer/columnist whatever you are getting out of this enterprise, at the expense of Nigeria political stability is at best ephemeral. If you make profits out of the money you get from the contracts awarded to you by this individual or government official, you will use the money to pay hospital bills. The holy book says it is the blessing of God that maketh rich without adding sorrow. All writers who are making dollars at the expense of a critical appraise of current Nigeria government will never live to enjoy the proceeds of their lucre! Nigeria will survive these charlatans in the corridors of power, and their cohorts in the media but for it to do so, the eternal vigilance of all Nigerians home and abroad is required.

Don’t sit back and allow these scum turned our country into another Rwanda. One out of every five Africans is a Nigerian, we cannot afford to give up on our motherland. Pick up your pen, get behind your keyboard and tell their publishers we are sick and tired of this charade. Enough is enough!